Liberty Quotes - Daily Email History

"Who can protest and does not, is an accomplice in the act."

~ The Talmud  

"The whole earth is in jail
and we're plotting this incredible jailbreak."

~ Wavy Gravy  

"The great and invigorating influences
in American life have been the unorthodox:
the people who challenge an existing
institution or way of life,
or say and do things that make people think."

~ William O. Douglas  

"Political agitation, by the passions it arouses
or the convictions it engenders,
may in fact stimulate men to the violation of the law.
Detestation of existing politics is
easily transformed into forcible resistance
of the authority which puts them in execution..."

~ Judge Learned Hand  

"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men."

~ Abraham Lincoln  

"He that wrestles with us
strengthens our nerves,
and sharpens our skill.
Our antagonist is our helper."

~ Edmund Burke  

"How bad do things have to get before you do something? Do they have to take away all your property? Do they have to license every activity that you want to engage in? Do they have to start throwing you on cattle cars before you say “now wait a minute, I don’t think this is a good idea.” How long is it going to be before you finally resist and say “No, I will not comply. Period!” Ask yourself now because sooner or later you are going to come to that line, and when they cross it, you’re going to say well now cross this line; ok now cross that line; ok now cross this line. Pretty soon you’re in a corner. Sooner or later you’ve got to stand your ground whether anybody else does or not. That is what liberty is all about."

~ Michael Badnarik  

"The right to revolt has sources deep in our history."

~ William O. Douglas  

"It is clear that thought is not free
if the profession of certain opinions
make it impossible to earn a living."

~ Bertrand Russell  

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."

~ George Orwell  

"If men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter
which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences that
can invite the consideration of mankind, reason is of no use;
the freedom of speech may be taken away, and dumb and silent we may be led,
like sheep to the slaughter."

~ George Washington  

"[A] function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve it's high purpose when it indices a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with things as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it presses for understanding."

~ Justice Potter Stewart  

"Freedom degenerates unless it has to struggle in its own defence."

~ Lord Acton  

"And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press,  or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; or to raise standing armies, unless necessary for the defense of the United States, or of some one or more of them; or to prevent the people from petitioning, in a peaceable and orderly manner, the federal legislature, for a redress of grievances; or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, papers or possessions."

~ Samuel Adams